It's not often that a Match Three puzzle game can be described as tough. Quite often such titles are fun but ultimately the kind of game that can be played without really thinking about hugely. There are of course a few noteable exceptions such as Puzzle Quest and, now, Legacy: Mystery Mansion.

Legacy: Mystery Mansion approaches the idea of complicating the Match Three puzzler differently to that of Puzzle Quest's path. Following the story of a mysterious and haunted mansion, players must collect parts of missing antiques spread across each room of the house in order to solve the mystery. This is done by dropping the respective pieces off the bottom of the screen. Gameplay is done in a typical Match Three fashion with players connecting different shapes together so that they are cleared. The purpose however is to clear a path for the special antique pieces so that they are added to the collection.

There's a strict time limit of five minutes in each case so fast reactions are needed in order to ferry the relevant pieces downwards. It's certainly pretty challenging with no introductory stages to ease the player in. Instead, players are thrown into the deep end and are quite likely to fail the first few times in their endeavour to free the correct pieces.

Once some mental adjustment is made however, Legacy: Mystery Mansion makes for quite a satisfying experience. It's refreshing to play a Match Three puzzle game that provides a higher difficulty curve than many others. Each room offers a different theme for the items and the graphics throughout are quite attractive and spooky. The only true annoyance is that moving the gems/icons can be a little sluggish with a slight delay. It can be frustrating at times, certainly when the player is thinking numerous moves ahead.

Legacy: Mystery Mansion will test players a lot more so than other Match Three titles which immediately makes it decent value for money at its already inexpensive price. It won't convert naysayers across as there's no more to it than simply matching the relevant icons, but it makes for an entertaining enough way of passing a few hours.

iPhone Screenshots

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